to think that nursery shouldn't let DS eat paint?

[PurpleStorm]

Yesterday, at nursery, they were doing painting and I was told that DS had covered himself in red paint. DS was mostly clean when I picked him up, but did have some red paint on him here and there, including on his lips. DS is 19 months.

Today, nursery rang me at work. DS had had a big red poo and they were concerned, saying that they thought I might want to come and have a look, and that they'd saved the nappy for me.

Obviously this all sounded alarming, so I went to the nursery to get DS and check out this nappy, which was indeed very very red.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, the red stuff in the nappy turned out to be red paint. Lots and lots of red paint. DS must have managed to eat vast quantities of it for that much to come out the other end. I'm really quite annoyed about this now, probably mostly because the whole thing was so worrying at first.

AIBU to think that they should have stopped him from eating lots of paint? Or if they're going to let toddlers eat paint, they should at least pick a colour that's not likely to be mistaken for blood?

[ChippingInIsEggceptional]

You do realise it's not the 1st of April don't you?

On the off chance this is actually true...

I wouldn't be that bothered he'd eaten the paint (it should all be non toxic) and it takes seconds for a child that age to slurp some paint from the pot but the thing that would worry me most is that they are so thick they haven't put 2 and 2 together and made 4 by themselves without worrying you... but then I'm equally surprised you didn't put 2 and 2 together and get 4.

Well, I guess you all will next time

[CloudsAndTrees]

My ds once ate a very tiny amount of black play dough, but you would have thought he'd eaten a whole tub by looking at what came out the other end, so I wouldn't be so sure that your ds ate 'vast quantities'.

Were they able to explain what happened at the time he ate the paint? I can see a situation where they could have been supervising adequately but your ds still managed to consume a mouthful. Obviously they should try to stop children eating paint, but presumably it's non toxic, and it's better that they are allowed to play with paint than have it be banned completely. These things will happen in nurseries where ratios prevent staff from being able to be 100% attentive to each child 100% of the time.

YABU for thinking they shouldn't use red paint at all in case it's mistaken for blood in a nappy!

[catgirl1976]

If he ate that amount then YANBU

A little nibble they could be forgiven for not noticing or being quick enough to stop but what you describe sounds like he is not being properly supervised

[LingDiLong]

I don't know....he didn't necessarily need to eat tons for it to come out like that. Also, if different staff painted with him the previous day I can see why they may not have put 2 and 2 together and worked out why his nappy was red.

I childmind and one of the toddlers I look after puts everything in his mouth - including paint. I am usually painting with 3 kids at a time so whilst I do sit with them as they paint and supervise closely he will take any opportunity he can to have a quick suck on a paint brush! If he is doing more eating than painting I'll take him away and give him something else to do but otherwise I don't stop him from joining in - he really enjoys and would be so upset to see the others paint without him.

[MammaTJ]

Was it 'non toxic'?

[MimsyBorogroves]

He doesn't need to have eaten loads for it to have that effect.

My son ate paint, a bit of playdoh and...a ladybird at nursery, all at different times. He used to put everything in his mouth, sometimes they didn't get to him quickly enough. In much the same way that I sometimes missed things.

If you think there are issues with their care, then yes, act upon it.

[reluctantmover]

That reminds me of the only time one of our children had constipation, ended up being a blue crayon. That makes me a lousy mum, that 1 year old had managed to find a piece of blue crayon somewhere and he managed to eat it without me knowing, first I knew about it was when it came out the other end.

[PurpleStorm]

I did ask them if they thought it could be the paint, but they said that DS couldn't possibly have eaten enough paint for that amount of red poo. I was also a bit suspicious when I got to the nursery and all the poo was still bright red, because blood normally starts to go brown as it dries, but the nursery staff were "Ooooh, we wouldn't know about that"....

But having read CloudsAndTrees post, maybe a little red paint makes a lot of red poo. I hadn't considered that the paint might have spread itself about the poo.

They said that all the paint they use is childrens paint and non-toxic BTW.

[LingDiLong]

I honestly don't think it's that bad that they panicked unnecessarily over what they thought might be blood in the poo. It shows concern for your child and it shows that they take his welfare seriously. Ok, a little bit of common sense might have saved you a trip to check his nappy but there wasn't any harm done really was there?

[PurpleStorm]

LingDiLong - yes I agree that they were right to raise concerns over what they thought might be blood in the poo.

I think I am sounding a bit unreasonable here, aren't I?

[LingDiLong]

Yes, you are a bit .

You had a bit of a scare though and your working day interrupted so I can see why you were a bit pissed off.

I remember when my eldest was about 8 months and the nursery gave her some kind of stir fry for lunch. The beansprouts gave me heart failure when they came out the other end - I thought she had some kind of awful worm/parasite problem!!

[JollyPurpleGiant]

DS was sitting next to me on the sofa earlier when he started making a really weird crunching noise. He was chewing a stone he had found on our walk earlier. Toddlers do weird things and it is not ever always possible to predict what madness they're going to attempt next!

I'm sure you know this though :)

[YeahBuddy]

Op this has just reminded me of the first time I gave my DTs strawberry jelly. The next day I changed a pooey nappy and panicked because it looked JUST like blood, I actually had the phone in my hand ready to ring the ooh doctor before I realised it was actually bright red jelly

[looselegs]

I'm a CM and regularly do painting with my mindees. The youngest, who is 2.5, always has to taste each colour of paint;he picks up each brush and sucks it!
Kids paint is non toxic-it won't do any harm......multi coloured poo brightens up the day!